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CRIME

States pushing for tougher penalties for rotten meat

Germany’s upper house of parliament the Bundesrat has sent a consumer protection bill back to the drawing board, saying regulations regarding rotten meat need to be toughened up.

Published: 15 May 2009 12:02 CEST
States pushing for tougher penalties for rotten meat
Photo: DPA

“We should not wait for the next rotten meat scandal to act,” said Bavaria’s Agriculture Minister Gerd Muller.

The rejected bill called for fines to increase from €20,000 to €50,000 as well as obligating producers to inform the public where the rotten meat was sold. But the upper house, which represents German’s 16 federal states, argued the authorities must also be able to name producers who put spoiled meat onto the market.

Currently, warnings are only issued after the danger to consumers and producers are taken into consideration. The Bundesrat also rejected plans for an emergency alert system.

“We want to be able to name the ‘Black Sheep’,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Minister for Consumer Affairs Peter Hauk.

Further, the Bundesrat requested that the mediation committee with the lower house of parliament regulate what would happen in case of animal epidemics. The states fear that the financial obligations associated with warning consumers about such epidemics, like the swine flu or mad cow disease, and are pushing to make that a federal responsibility.

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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